Trimming Thighs

[Divemaster]

I do the pinning too after trimming. Last comp I missed one and DQ'd on chicken. That will surely bring your overall score down some!!!!!:icon_blush:

I will be looking for a new easier to see way to pin.

Larry

That's the reason I don't use toothpicks for the pinning... I use the longer metal skewers that would normally be used when sewing up a turkey... You can't miss it, it doesn't burn if your are browning on a grill, and it leaves a smaller set of holes...

The skewers I speak of are about 3 1/2 to 4 inches long... Trust me that you wont forget it because you won't be able to get the chicken in the box.

 

[Jeff_in_KC]

I've just ALWAYS toothpicked chicken and it's habit for me to remove two per piece every time. We also make it a habit to count toothpicks when we're done.

 

[DBrentster]

We'll be in stevensville this weekend! :-D Stop by anytime we'll have plenty in our camp!

Hope it gets you started, Again there were some very good tips provided in all the reading here. Good luck with it.

I am totally bummed the Chesapeake was the same weekend as the Monmouth comp. We are doing the Jersey one so family can come and experience it.

Good luck!

 

[Big George's BBQ]

Mutha nice pictorial. It is easier to trim the thighs before marinating and/or cooking. Touch up trimming after cooking if needed

 

[Gowan]

Ah ok, it's just miscommunication then. I thought you had some new method I'd not seen before! You must have missed what I was saying about trimming AFTER cooking in my original post you replied to.

I wrote:

Now that's funny right there! I wonder if they still make that thing?

On topic: Yes you trim chicken thighs before cooking. The only trimming you should do when cooked is to snip off any little pointy bits that form on the edges. Any further cutting will be very obvious and hurt your appearance scores more than it helps.

billm wrote:

many teams trim them more than cutting off the "little pointy bits" and do very well

 

[DBrentster]

Mutha Chicken - Thanks again for the tips, obviously we WAY overcooked (and probably sauced too) the chicken and ended up with postage stamps but at least the trimming was an improvement from our last effort. Also I'm going to use other suggestions in this thread an pin the skin next time.

Appearance: 6,5,7,7,9,7 (lets call that room for improvement:-o)

 

[chibi]

Also when trimming your thighs do not forget to pull out the vein that runs along the bone. That can burst sometimes and discolor the meat. Judges may think it is not cooked properly due to the red color. Happened to a friend of mine.
Also trim out the little pocket of fat that is just under the meat near the bone.

 

[timzcardz]

Having never done this, a thought does come to mind. So I'll offer up what may possibly be a silly question.

Could you take the skin off of a thigh, and then completely wrap the thigh in the larger skin from a breast thereby leaving a very neat piece with the only edges of skin being on the underside?

 

[SmokeInDaEye]

Having never done this, a thought does come to mind. So I'll offer up what may possibly be a silly question.

Could you take the skin off of a thigh, and then completely wrap the thigh in the larger skin from a breast thereby leaving a very neat piece with the only edges of skin being on the underside?

Wouldn't the whole giant piece of skin come off with the first bite? I would think you'd want to have the skin somewhat connected to the meat but I'm a member of the 13th place chicken club so what do I know?:mrgreen:

 

[The Pickled Pig]

Having never done this, a thought does come to mind. So I'll offer up what may possibly be a silly question.

Could you take the skin off of a thigh, and then completely wrap the thigh in the larger skin from a breast thereby leaving a very neat piece with the only edges of skin being on the underside?

I have interchanged skins before w/o a problem. However, if you trim the thigh down to a small enough size, it's own skin will easily wrap around it.

 

[Fatback Joe]

I have interchanged skins before w/o a problem. However, if you trim the thigh down to a small enough size, it's own skin will easily wrap around it.

I do the same thing. Last comp when I brined my thighs every piece of skin came off the thighs so when I removed them from the brine I had to wrap each and every thigh and I am sure only a small % if any got their original skin..........it was good for 9th and I don't think the intermingled skin was a factor. LOL All the thighs were cut down to a uniform size/shape so it didn't matter a bit.

 

[Plowboy]

Having never done this, a thought does come to mind. So I'll offer up what may possibly be a silly question.

Could you take the skin off of a thigh, and then completely wrap the thigh in the larger skin from a breast thereby leaving a very neat piece with the only edges of skin being on the underside?

Interesting idea. Kind of overkill and unnecessary, IMHO. However, very creative and doable.

Wouldn't the whole giant piece of skin come off with the first bite? I would think you'd want to have the skin somewhat connected to the meat but I'm a member of the 13th place chicken club so what do I know?:mrgreen:

Not going to come off with first bite if it isn't 100% rubber. I remove the skin completely when I prep. Just easier that way, and I like to get rub on the actual chicken, too.

I stop short of getting the Lady Schick razor out.

 

[BBQ_Mayor]

I stop short of getting the Lady Schick razor out.

Thats for your chicken, right? :mrgreen:

 

[Plowboy]

Thats for your chicken, right? :mrgreen:

Not for MY chicken.

 

[Dale P]

All of these ideas are fine with me but it seems the poor ol pork butt is getting held back.

Try this:
We brine our chicken skin in seperate containers from the meat. Chicken in salted Sun Drop and the skin we marinate in Blueberry vinegar.


Anybody want to buy a bridge?

 

[Scottie]

What a waste of a perfectly good mixer for Jack Daniel's....

 

[KC_Bobby]

I was hoping this thread would energize me for my thigh trimming ... it didn't, but I still need to do it tonight because I'm driving to IA tomorrow night.

Off to trimming I go. :icon_sleepy

 

[Gowan]

Having never done this, a thought does come to mind. So I'll offer up what may possibly be a silly question.

Could you take the skin off of a thigh, and then completely wrap the thigh in the larger skin from a breast thereby leaving a very neat piece with the only edges of skin being on the underside?

I've tried this with thighs as well as breasts - basically removing the largest possible sheet of skin ala Silence of the Lambs. It worked alright, but the results weren't good enough to justify all the extra work and waste.

It's great that you're thinking like this though. That's how new techniques come to be discovered. My advice is when you come up with a new and crazy concept go ahead and experiment yourself and see if it works. Once you post the idea on a forum the cat's out of the bag and the next guy over might start using your "secret" technique to beat you to the stage! :icon_shock1:

 

[Alexa RnQ]

A cautionary tale: We normally trim thighs before we leave for a comp, put them in Foodsaver bags and keep them iced down.

Running short of time before Modesto, we just flung the packages from Costco into the cooler, figuring we'd have time to trim after setup. They were those multipacks with three thighs in each smaller sealed pouch.

Setup didn't run any better for time after such a long trip, and there we were in the dark opening packages of thighs. About the second package I opened was RANK. I mean, it purely stank even though it was within the freshness date.

By the time we realized that about every other package was spoiled, I was starting to panic. We were very, very lucky that some of the pieces that weren't spoiled were good ones that gave us a lot to work with, but if they'd been mostly weedy ones we'd have been screwed. As it was, I had to pick and scrape to get together the number of thighs we'd normally cook.

We've sworn that we'll never get left out in the field without recourse again.

 

[BBQNUTT]

similar to what the pictures above show..we actually remove the skin then cut the "oyster" out , trim up the sides then wrap skin back on. All the peices look uniform and look great in the box. As far as it looking obvious im not sure what you mean.

What part of the thigh are you calling the "oyster"? I trim my thighs very little other than the extra long pieces of skin. I am curious to know what the "oyster" is so I can try trimming it off. :smile: